You might not have heard of Jackpot Digital, but perhaps you might want to pay attention to them as this Vancouver based company has a very unique niche in terms of having the high ground when it comes to electronic table games and mobile games for casinos, cruise ships, and online operators. I did a In Depth report of their Jackpot Blitz product not too long ago. I had the opportunity to speak to company CEO Jake Kalpakian last week who related to me the path that the company took to get to where they are today.

The company started out doing online poker games in the late 1990’s. But they were approached by a company named Pokertek to first do a wireless poker product for Carnival cruise lines, but later to do a next generation electronic poker table that was intended to offer a variety of poker games. The company ended up building the software part of this product and license it to Pokertek with the hopes of getting a piece of the licensing pie when they served it up to Carnival. Along the way, PokerTek was sold to Multimedia Games of Austin, Texas in 2014 who was then promptly bought by a company named Everi. Now Everi had other lines of business and electronic table games didn’t fit with their core business. Thus Jackpot Digital bought it and the table product developed into what is now Jackpot Blitz. One of the cool things about this product is that Kalpakian is not only targeting the casino industry with it, but he’s also targeting places like Newfoundland which is the home to video lottery terminals. The reason being is that this product requires no human interaction (read: you don’t need a dealer) and can be tailored to fit a variety of use cases. It also covers a wide demographic from baby boomers to millennials. The latter is a focus for Kalpakian.

One thing that Jackpot Digital has going for it is that they have a unique product that effectively makes them the only game in town. Thus, while some Canadian companies have a struggle breaking into the US market, Jackpot Digital doesn’t because those who are interested in what they have to offer chase them. That’s a unique position to be in and likely accounts for the fact that they’re growing. Another point, it’s not just US customers who are interested in their products, they’re seeing interest globally. The net result is that they’re number one in this market. But that’s not enough for Kalpakian as his goal is to extend their number one status so far that nobody can touch them. That’s a lofty goal, but given everything that I’ve seen, it’s reachable.

All of the above is are very good reasons to keep an eye on Jackpot Digital. That’s going to be very easy as they are a publicly traded company. They’ve clearly got technology that people want, and stand every chance of being Canada’s next great success story.